Profile

Stream

"All the pop choruses, programmed drum beats, fast tempos, electric guitars, hip-hop cadences and other trends that have thrived in the business of mass-market country radio aren’t going away. They’ve been good for the short-term bottom line, and even if they’re hurting the long-term brand of country music, the immediate dollar signs are all that business folks can understand."

Country music... real country music ... is not dead. Country radio actually is pretty dead. But that's fine. Who needs it? The irony is almost funny. So-called modern "country" grows stagnant on the outdated country radio format. Meanwhile, old-school, folk and soul driven "alternative country," with its roots deep in tradition, is thriving on the most thoroughly modern, new-fangled electronic mediums in the world.

If this week's commercial triumphs by Alan Jackson and Jason Isbell tell us anything, it is that country radio is no longer the forum that most country fans turn to when looking for new material. Tell me again how today's young people aren't interested in traditional country, Nashville.

This woman has lost a tremendous amount of weight in a relatively short period of time, and she chose to share her story on the Internet. I get that. I've done the same thing. Every time you post something about your progress, when someone clicks "like," it provides you with a little bit of validation. A little bit of motivation to keep going. You might be surprised at how much it helps. Obviously, morbid obesity is just the physical manifestation of a problem that is really rooted in your mind. Something has to be wrong on a very deep, almost subterranean level inside of your psyche to make a person want to kill themselves with food. And we know that, too ... we obese people know that every next bite of junk food is slow suicide. If we think about it consciously at all, it's usually just to bemoan that it seems to be taking so long to finish the job.

So you have to understand, the weight of the mental problem is the hardest thing to overcome. The physical work is difficult, developing discipline about food is difficult, too. But unlearning the self-hatred that makes morbid obesity happen in the first place ... that part is a TOTAL bitch. And that part is a new fight, from scratch, every single day. You don't know how hard it can be to make yourself want to be alive until you've spent a long, long time in a pretty godamn miserable downward spiral. Addicts can relate. Suicide attempt survivors can relate. Obesity survivors are a bit of both.

That's why we post pictures and stories on the Internet, and why we thrive on the positive feedback we get from others. It is critical, especially during the early part of recovery, when new, healthy habits are trying to take root. That positive feedback nurtures a healing soul.

But negative feedback can end up doing you good, too, if you've developed the wherewithal to stand up to it.

How this woman dealt with the mockery and challenges she received took courage. Real, deep, life-changing courage. I think it demonstrates a commitment to herself that is going to get her through all of the challenges that remain before her. This is someone who has been pretty deep in despair, you almost have to be to become morbidly obese. And this is someone who has clawed her way out. Most of us use social media to develop an ideal persona; to project to the world the person we want to be. This woman is, to use a cliché, keeping it real. The ability to honestly and objectively assess one's progress, and show it to the world in all of its imperfection... that takes some godamn guts.

In the end, each and every one of us is going to have to beat our own demons. And we each have a lot of them, too. Every one of us has a whole litter of personal demons that we hand raise from pups, and eventually they kill us if we let them. This woman has her demons at bay today. We should all hope to be this strong.

+Darrell Loudermilk exactly I actually know a person that did not commit to the life style changed needed and treated the surgery as a miracle cure. They gained a lot of weight back after having the gastric bypass surgery. They kept eating eating soft high sugary or high calorie food which in effect defeats the surgery.﻿

I constantly assemble new MP3 playlists to listen to while running. Now and then, a song from one of those playlists sounds absolutely perfect, to my ears, while I'm out there. Those songs make the final cut of my Perfect Running Playlist. This is one of those songs. #DurlsPRP﻿

I constantly assemble new MP3 playlists to listen to while running. Now and then, a song from one of those playlists sounds absolutely perfect, to my ears, while I'm out there. Those songs make the final cut of my Perfect Running Playlist. This is one of those songs. #DurlsPRP﻿

We went and saw Trainwreck last night. It's OK. It is the least and weakest of Judd Apatow's movies, no where near as funny as Knocked Up or The 40 Year Old Virgin. And a little bit of Amy Schumer goes a long, long, long, long, long way.

The script is not very good, a lot of the movie serves as the most conspicuous and obvious series of excuses to put popular basketball players on the screen since Space Jam. (Having said that, Lamar James is pretty good in this movie, and at least as likable a screen presence as Schumer herself.) Collin Quinn and wrestler John Cena were the two funniest things in the movie. But their characters are both written out of the story in the first hour. Once those two characters were gone, I lost all interest in the movie. I could not wait to be done watching Amy Schumer's repetitive one-joke act reach some kind of conclusion. I cannot recommend this.﻿

I constantly assemble new MP3 playlists to listen to while running. Now and then, a song from one of those playlists sounds absolutely perfect, to my ears, while I'm out there. Those songs make the final cut of my Perfect Running Playlist. This is one of those songs. #DurlsPRP﻿

This is a really good article about nutrition, and about common mistakes people make in an effort to live healthier. I'm sharing this one because these items have factored into my own experiences over the past year, as I've gone from morbidly obese to fairly fit.

The first item on the list is a suggestion to eat whole eggs. I had switched to just egg whites when I began eating lighter last year, and I only even ate those occasionally. Once I began a more demanding exercise regimen I started researching ways to better compliment my activity level with the right nutrition. A number of sources recommended whole eggs. The positive information on whole eggs was considerable, so I made an intake shift and put a chunk of my daily calories into whole eggs. The energy boost and general improvement to the way I feel was undeniable. My runs became more enjoyable once whole eggs became regular morning fuel for me, and although the link may be partially in my mind, it's definitely a link that I consider substantial.

The second factor on this list is finding the right carb/fat balance. For me, what has worked has been to simply eliminate simple carbs and processed sugar entirely (or as close to entirely as possible). That is the part of my diet to which most people have the strongest negative reaction. I hear things like "I couldn't live without potatoes," or "I have to have bread," etc. OK, cool... but keep in mind that it isn't one extreme or the other. Your options aren't binary, you don't have to choose between going without bread entirely OR eating bread all day. I think that the key is portion control. Have only a little of certain favorites, savor a daily taste, and control yourself. And structure the rest of your diet around that daily indulgence, so that it is not part of an overall, daily, non-stop carb deluge. Figure out what works for you. My own weakness is craft beer. I feel like I just have to have my daily craft beer. And I do still enjoy one craft beer every evening. But it is no longer washing down pizza and potato chips, and that is the key for me. My daily carbs are few and complex, my grains are whole and limited, and my diet is primarily vegetables and lean protein. I eat whole, I eat clean, and I exercise. For me, as long as I live like that, a daily brew is a well earned reward that doesn't impede my progress.

Number three, the misconception that a calorie is a calorie. People with over-consumption problems don't often seem to really understand what a calorie is. I know that I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it before I made some changes, and it is as though I thought of calories as some kind of additive that food manufacturers put into their products to make them taste better. The truth is simpler than that. A calorie is basically the potential energy stored in food. Our job is to pick food that gives us the most beneficial potential energy. Food that gives us good nutrition along with that energy, so that we can do more with that energy. Once you get that ... that eating is just fueling the machine you live in ... you begin to want to use better and better fuels. Take care of that machine you live in and you can have a lot of fun living in it.

The fourth thing on the list is cooking oil. The list goes into a fairly detailed debate about which oils are better for you than others, which ones to avoid, which ones are a healthy source of fat, etc, etc. I will admit that this is an area where I am still very weak, in terms of my understanding. I don't quite get the cooking oil issue, and it seems like the popular thinking about which oils are best seems to change constantly. So, here is what has worked for me over the past year: I just avoid cooking oil. Period. I don't fry food and don't eat food that relies on a lot of oil in the composition. I cook a lot of food on the George Foreman grill, and I eat a huge amount of my food raw. Raw vegetables are part of every meal for me, and a little raw fruit is my favorite snack. As far as healthy fat intake, I get by on the naturally occurring fat in the healthier foods I eat. There is fat in nuts, and I have almonds daily. I also get fat from salmon, the skin of rotisserie chicken, and a very small amount of daily cheese. Cooking oil, to me, is a riddle for the ages. But not one I need to solve.

The last entry on the list is about the mistake of eating margarine instead of butter. That argument has been another opt out for me. I just don't eat either daily. But I have totally bought into the notion that margarine really is awful for you, and I avoid it like the plague. If I'm having something where a little butter might be in order, then I do have exactly that... just a very little bit of real butter on an occasional sweet potato, for instance. I don't mind doing that. But margarine? I have no need for it at all, given that the bulk of my daily calories come from raw veggies and fruit, quinoa, beans, nuts, and a little lean meat. Eat what tastes good on its own and you don't need to smother your food in any kind of yellow paste!

Now, all of this is presented with the usual qualifiers. YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY! One-Size-Fits-All diets and strict routines don't work. Each of us has different nutritional needs, AND our own nutritional needs change as our lifestyle changes. What you need today might not be what you need tomorrow. Talk to your doctor. Figure out what is right for you, and do that.

Eat clean, whole food. Take in good calories and then put them to good use. Life is all about getting the most out of every experience. Suck out the marrow!

Nutrition history is riddled with nonsense. People have been advised to do all sorts of strange things that challenge common sense. Some of these things are not only useless, but potentially harmful. The worst part… a lot of this misguided advice is still being pushed. Here are the top 5 contenders for the worst diet advice in history. 1. Throw Away The Egg Yolks, The Most Nutritious Part of The Egg Eggs are among the most nutritious foods on the...

+Bill DeWitt You were one of the guys who suggested that I try whole eggs. That's been one of those suggestions that has worked out well for me. It served as kind of a jumpstart when I needed one, and now look forward to my couple of daily eggs enthusiastically. ﻿

I constantly assemble new MP3 playlists to listen to while running. Now and then, a song from one of those playlists sounds absolutely perfect, to my ears, while I'm out there. Those songs make the final cut of my Perfect Running Playlist. This is one of those songs. #DurlsPRP﻿